Channel 4 is to install a giant 48-foot high steel version of its iconic logo outside its Horseferry Road headquarters to throw the spotlight onto the Big Art Project.

The installation, which will be customised by four artists over 12 months, "will mirror the channel's on-air identity with steel bars forming the instantly recognisable '4' logo only when viewed from a certain angle."

The logo art will form only one part of the wider Big Art Project, which started filming in 2005 for a premiere next year. Seven sites have been nominated to receive an art installation - one each in Beckton, Belfast, Burnley, Cardigan, Isle of Mull, Sheffield and St. Helens. In addition to showing the installations, the series will examine the entire commissioning process "to offer a candid account of the successes and pitfalls on the journey to achieving new public art works."

"The Big Art Project has galvanised communities and there are some very exciting projects underway which we hope will deliver a lasting legacy," said Jan Younghusband, commissioning editor for arts and performance at Channel 4. "The series will consider important issues on art and its place in the built environment."

Stuart Cosgrove, Channel 4's head of nations and regions and chair of the Big Art Trust, added that the series will "explore the role art plays in our lives, who influences and funds it and what are the obstacles along the way."